Derby Day Preview

There’s the temptation of opening today’s post with a mention of Tevez’s recent comments — and I have very strong opinions on it — but for the sake of a much more pressing event today, I will bring it up another day.

The richest team in the world ® arrive at Old Trafford on the back of, I think, four wins. But we all know their form (and our form) matters little when it comes to derby day. They did the double against us last time, although it could be argued the first one was a fluke and the second was under the long shadow of the Munich anniversary. The Citizens would, no doubt, use it as a way to brag about doing the double over us last season — and sometimes we should let these things slide. What we mustn’t let happen today though, is to drop points against them; nothing will taste sweeter for them than a few points grabbed at our expense and to give their dear friends at Merseyside more hope of clawing their way back into the title race.

In terms of form, we haven’t played better football than we are currently, this season — not even during the clean sheet record breaking days — and so on paper we should really walk over them.

It all boils down ultimately to the team selection. The manager will try to play his best side today, and will, perhaps, rest a few of the stars in midweek against Wigan, owing to Arsenal’s visit next week.

So the team selection — and for the first time, this is the actual team for the day — is: Van der Sar, Rafael Da Silva, Vidic, Evans, Evra, Ronaldo, Fletcher, Giggs, Park, Berbatov, Tevez.
Subs: Kuszczak, Neville, Rooney, Carrick, Nani, Scholes, O’Shea.

Looks a decent side to me. Carrick gets a breather and so does Rooney. Although the selection of Park for a home game indicates ensuring we keep tabs on a certain tricky attacker.

I think I’ll leave the rest to you. Prediction: 2-1 to United.

Come on you reds!!!